Why is it that the best fruits for making pies happen to ripen when only a complete idiot would be willing to turn on her oven? One particularly cruel Alibi staffer keeps bringing in peaches from his yard. This morning I noticed that he brought in just about enough for a nice, deep-dish peach pie. Mmm, peach pie. I like to toss my sliced peaches with just a touch of almond extract instead of vanilla. And in the summer I think pie tastes best the next day, especially if it's been refrigerated. There's nothing like a slice of cold pie for breakfast! If the oven is a no-go, you can always slice fresh peaches and top them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Try making a peachy milkshake or a smoothie with yogurt and honey. Purée the peaches and freeze them in popsicle molds or little paper cups. Soak slices in bourbon and brown sugar; eat the peaches and sip the bourbon on the porch after a nice meal of fried chicken. Make it up as you go along! Just stay away from the stove.

Pat and Terry Keene will relinquish management of Bien Shur to Sandia Pueblo next month. The Keenes, who also own Artichoke Café, have run Sandia Casino's upscale Bien Shur restaurant for three and a half years. According to Sandia Pueblo Gov. Stuwart Paisano, the parting of ways was amicable. "Our relationships with the Keenes has been fabulous. We were skeptical at the beginning when we started the restaurant, so we solicited the experts [the Keenes] to come in and manage it for us. They were scared too but everyone did a tremendous job." So why spoil the fun? "Growth is putting a damper on it," he says. The pueblo will operate Bien Shur through the end of 2004 when it will be closed for 10 months of renovations that will transform the area into a dining room for the casino's expanded 500-seat buffet restaurant. Construction is already underway for an adjacent hotel that will provide a new home for Bien Shur as well as another proposed restaurant. Paisano said that while the pueblo was interested in attracting national chain restaurants, those restaurants may be located inside the casino or on pad sites nearby. When construction is completed next year, there will be five restaurants in or next to the casino. "We're very interested in diversifying away from gaming and offering a well-rounded type of dining experience," the governor said. (GD)

Shrimp mousseline-stuffed squash blossoms

By Gwyneth Doland

If you've ever grown zucchini in your garden then you know how prolific squash plants are. They just keep growing and growing and growing. It seems every time you blink there's another squash the size of a loaf of Wonder Bread lurking under an umbrella-sized leaf. It can be hard to keep up with them. One method is to pluck the blossoms before a squash can grow or when the blossom is still attached to a finger-sized baby squash. The blossoms can be tossed into salads, stirred into simmering soups or chopped and added to pancake or crêpe batter. They can also be stuffed and then either poached or battered and deep fried.